As The Rain Beats Down
by Downside-Left
Summary: One very bad day at the Jeffersonian. Spoilers for up to the 101st episode. Hodgins/Angela, Booth/Brennan, Zach/Cam.


Disclaimer: not mine!

Title: As The Rain Beats Down

Summary: One very bad day at the Jeffersonian. Spoilers for up to the 101st episode. Hodgins/Angela, Booth/Brennan, Zach/Cam.

A/N: Again with the ZANGST! And the Zach/Cam, only this one is more obvious than the other ones I've written. Like a lot more. It uses names! And specifics!

A/N2: Just a note, I do not warn for character death, since I feel like it gives everything away. This note being here does not necessarily mean that there is character death, although there might be. It's now a standard author's note for all my stories, particularly the ZANGST ones. They're the ones that are most likely to involve character death (I think at least one actually had it, or at least hinted at it).

...

It is noon, and Zach is sitting on one of the couches in the Jeffersonian. He has a bowl of macaroni and cheese on the table in front of him. They have a case, and it's an interesting one that makes him think and is actually a challenge.

Angela and Hodgins are sitting on one of the other couches, stealing each other's Chinese food, poking each other in the side, and generally acting very couple-y. Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth are doing the same thing on yet another couch.

And, next to Zach, _leaning on_ Zach, is Cam.

They've been together for three months now, and Zach is overjoyed. This is everything he ever wanted. This is his perfect world.

Everyone is happy. Angela and Hodgins are together, officially married now that the whole 'other-husband' thing was taken care of. Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth are dating too, and are clearly loving every moment of their new lives together (complete with a soon-to-be-baby; the idea of Dr. Brennan as a mother is still a bit odd, but they have all, especially Booth, come to terms with it after her surprising revelation last year). And Zach and Cam have each other, and they are _all_ truly happy.

No one has ever heard of Gormogon, because Gormogon doesn't exist.

The sun shines brightly every day.

And Zach Addy smiles, and is happy.

...

It is noon, and a tall man with glasses walks into the Jeffersonian's lab, asking to speak to Dr. Brennan. He takes her aside and speaks very quietly, so that the other squints (and Booth) cannot hear what he says, but they can see Brennan's reaction.

Her face crumples, and tears begin to form as she shakes her head in hopeless denial. Booth walks over, moving as if to put his hand on her shoulder, but he doesn't. The latest twist in their relationship has them both dancing awkwardly around each other, neither sure what to do.

The man with glasses works at the psychiatric facility where Zach stays. He has bad news.

Angela bursts into tears, and does not turn to Hodgins. Hodgins sinks back into his chair, burying his face in his hands, ignoring everyone around him. Cam leans against a nearby wall as Dr. Brennan bolts from the room and Booth does not follow.

The man with glasses has come to tell them that Zach stole sleeping pills from the medicine station in the hospital. He died in his sleep the previous night.

Hodgins rises from his chair again and calls the man with glasses an incompetent imbecile, a monster, a hack, a fraud. He threatens to have the man fired, to have him deported, to have him dismembered and killed. Angela sits on the floor and sobs, trying to remember when and how and _why_ she had stopped visiting her once-close friend. Booth stares after Brennan, wondering if he should follow her, try to comfort her at the loss of the man who was the closest thing she has –had– to a son. Down the hall, Brennan leans against the wall and weeps for her friend, for her apprentice, for the boy she wished she could have helped more.

And Cam is silent, tears sliding slowly down her face, as she mourns the loss of the sweet young man who had been the only one to really accept her at the beginning, who had taken such pride in working with her, who had tried so hard at everything he did. She mourns the lost opportunities. She never had a chance to tell him, to show him, how much she cared. She had been so concerned with the fact that she was his boss, and he was her employee, that she has now lost any chance at anything with him.

As the rain beats down on the Jeffersonian, they all weep for the death of Zach Addy.

...

One of these is real. The other is just a lie, a dream, a whisper in someone's mind. There is enough of reality in both that the casual observer would not be able to tell the difference.

Zach thinks he knows which is real.

So does Cam.

And he smiles, and she weeps.

...

A/N: WELL. Did _not_ expect that. When I started, I thought he'd just be hiding in his head, and then I figured he'd be in a coma. I thought I'd get Cam to wake him up (think Sleeping Beauty only gender reversals) and say 'guess what, you're free! It was all a bad dream!' and it would be soppy and romantic and 'aww'-inducing. BUT, turns out, _he died_ instead (maybe)! This kind of ran away from me. Like a lot. And I have no idea how. At least there's the POSSIBILTY that it's all a dream, even Gormogon…. If you want to look at it that way. Please review!


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